Correlation between consumer spending and...?

Question

is there a correlation between.

1. income?
2. occupation?
3. age?
4. education level?
5. gender?
6. wealth?

what sources would you recommend to find out?

thanks

Answer 1

There is a correlation between consumer spending and each of the listed item. The degree of correlation or the strength of it is different though. If you understand the word correlation, it should be obvious to you. A good Economics book is what you need.

Answer 2

I'm not a hundred percent sure on your question but I'll try.

Consumer Spending - Income.

Other than saving money, you spend what you earn, obviously there is a direct correlation between income and spending.

Spending - Occupation.

I can't imagine there would be an independent correlation. (That is to say, doctors have a higher income than janitors, so they spend more, or some other thing from the rest of the list.)

Spending - Age

Certainly to some degree. Children under 12 don't have much money, and even if you count money their parents spend on them, it probably increases with age. As age goes up income tends to rise, so there's that issue. Once people are retired and the kids are moved out, I imagine there would be a decrease in spending, since they woudln't have a strong income anymore...but it seems that all that matters is the correlation of age with income.

Education level

Higher education leads to higher income leads to higher spending. BUT, independent of income, i think more educated people would probably save a higher proportion of their income, having better foresight.

Gender

Now here's a good one! I would probably tends towards saying women spend more, but the fact is that there is also the income factor again...and men tend to buy fewer but more expensive things (cars, boats, power tools) where as women but more small things. Can't even figure a guess, except that there is probably not a statistically significant difference.

Wealth

Definately correlation. Wealth is defined as the value of all assets, so things you buy increase your wealth. This as spending goes up, wealth goes up, and vice versa.

Answer 3

Try http://www.freelunch.com.
There is a wealth of economic data there. They may have data that you can use to correlate consumer spending with each of those variables. I know they have the aggregate statistics for consumer spending and income, so that might be of use.